1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to user entry of Chinese text into a computer by way of entering phonetic spelling. More particularly, the invention concerns disambiguation of telephone style key presses to yield Chinese text using segmentation and selective shifting.
2. Description of the Related Art
Chinese characters are notoriously difficult to enter using a computer. One reason is that there are thousands and thousands of characters, and it is impractical to use a keyboard with so many keys. Other approaches have been aimed at having users enter Chinese characters according to the characters' pronunciation. One advantage here is that people can use an alphabet, such as a Latin alphabet. Another approach is to assign each Chinese character a different numeric encoding, and then people can specify characters by the corresponding numbers. Other approaches define characters by their strokes and other structural components, and seek user input on this basis. There are also translation based systems, where people enter characters by entering their equivalent in a different language, which is based on an alphabet, and therefore is more amenable to computer entry. Ultimately, the computer translates from this language into Chinese text.
Today, computer entry of Chinese characters occurs by a variety of these different methods. No one technique has really taken over, since each has different advantages and drawbacks, and different techniques appeal to people of different backgrounds, regions, education, and experiences.
All solutions are constrained by the limitations of hardware, such as the nature of the user entry mechanism, the display, and the processor. On the subject of processing resources, some approaches may theoretically provide character entry schemes that users would find to be more accurate or intuitive, but these often require greater computer processing effort, which slows the overall process and therefore decreases user satisfaction.
Over the years, this area of technology has undergone widespread attention and experienced some significant developments. Nevertheless, much work remains to be done, and further advances in the performance and efficiency of these systems remain to be seen. Indeed, known systems are not always completely adequate for some applications due to certain unsolved problems.